RIPLEY'S URBAN RAIL BURTON BATTLE OF THE SHOPS SNOWBOARDCANADA.COM REVIEW
Posted At: 03/10/2008 5:25 am
Words by Todd Elsley and Andi Roth, photos by Richard Roth
| Toronto, ON—On February 28, 2008 Ripley’s Urban Rail Park in downtown Toronto hosted the final showdown in the The “Burton Battle of the Shops” series. One of the coolest new events we’ve seen in snowboarding, it combined the technical skills of riding with the tactical skills of gambling. This six week contest series saw 10 of Ontario’s top shops come together and battle it out. Each week two shops competed head to head in a winner take all jam format winning poker chips that were carried into to the final: “Black Jack Duel”. The final six shops featured in the final: Fathom, Switch, Alcatraz, Hogtown, Surf Paradise and Meltdown, each shop had a representative at the blackjack table while their riders were at the top of the hill taking turns dropping in to their choice of three 40’ pro rails (flatdown, step-down or double-kink), depending on the rider and chip stack. The shop rep placed his wager at the start of each round. Next the shop rider would drop in and the shop would be awarded the first Blackjack card judged on the trick. Difficultly and execution was key to get a face card, aces were the exception. After all five riders had completed their run it was up to the shop rep to finish out the hand. A second card was dealt to each rep. Additional cards were dealt out to finish out the Blackjack round. There was some great riding, and even a hand full of Aces were given out, but Fathom anted up the right combination of great riding on the slopes and good luck at the table. Fathom took an early lead with Meltdown and Alcatraz holding close the entire night. The final round saw all the shops going all in.Fathom had a small chip stack left over so one of the shops needed to hit big and have Fathom bust. It was the most intense round with the crowd roaring for big throwdowns, and the shop reps jockeying the best riders into the line up. Fathom rider Sam Marcotte scored a face card off the Flatdown; Meltdown pulled in an ace, and Alcatraz and Switch blew up scoring low cards, but it was still any team’s game going back to the custom made Burton Battle of the Shops poker table. Dealer Andi Roth hit Alcatraz and Fathom both with face cards, Meltdown doubled up with Aces and split with their final chip. Meltdown unfortunately hit 21 on the single chip and blew out on the big stack. It was then left to Alcatraz to take on Fathom. But after another Alcatraz bust, it was down to Fathom with only the dealer to beat. Fathom rider Sam Marcotte accepted the Burton Belt of Supremacy. The belt will hang in Fathom board shop after a trip to the US Open later this month. Organizers wish to thank all the participating shops: Hustler, The Boardshop, Icarus, Tropical North, Boardsports, Meltdown, Hogtown, Switch, Alcatraz and Fathom. Ripley’s Urban Rail Park would like to thank Lance Webb from Burton for all of the support to make this legendary event happen. Shop Teams Alcatraz Yuri S Matt Bujok Sid Gojer Brad Hesson Diana Sandru Meltdown Nathan Cortes Justin Ianne Scott Snider Nick Leblanc Fathom Sam Marcotte Victoria Marshall Switch Danielle Brown Andrew Kearn Jesse Greer Brendan Somppi See photos here |
GLOBE DEMO with RYAN DECENZO SATURDAY FEB 9TH
Posted At: 02/08/2008 5:40 am
Live @ The Urban Rail Skate Park
11 Polson Street - Toront ON
GLOBE & RED BULL present RYAN DECENZO
Ryan Decenzo, recent winner of the Tampa AM, is coming to tear up
Ripley's Urban Rail Skate Park.
Check him out on youtube here or get some advice on your fakie
flips from Ryan here.
GET DOWN HERE AND SEE THIS!!! It's FREEEEEEEEE for crying out loud!
CHECK OUT THE RIPLEY'S URBAN RAIL CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE!
Posted At: 02/01/2008 7:21 am
Hello and welcome to the Ripley's Urban Rail Blog.
As you can probably tell we've been extremely busy here at Ripley's Urban Rail over the last little while. The entire website has tons of new content, we have a facebook page (check that out here) and we now have our own brand spanking new Youtube channel. You can click here to go directly to it, click on the URL down at the bottom of this yarble or memorize the URL and type it directly into your browsers address bar. Any which way will work and I'm sure you have your own preferences.
As you may or may not know the city got dumped on over the last 24 hours of this posting. Our snow park is lovin life right now and the video above proves it. If you are thinking about coming down to hit this now is the time. The snow is perfect! What are you waiting for? Get down here!
Come visit our Youtube channel.
www.youtube.com/urbanrailpark
